Josh McDaniels’ New Gig
Raiders and Broncos fans can agree on three things.
-Fuck the Chiefs
-Lol Chargers
-Josh McDaniels deserves to be put in the Hague.
I still can’t believe he ever got another chance. McDaniels was an astounding disaster in Denver his first time around. He alienated everyone. He might be the reason Jay Cutler doesn’t care. Cutler was a loud firebrand who got in shouting matching with Philip Rivers in Denver. McDaniels came along and pissed Cutler off royally by trying to trade him for Matt Cassell and he tantrum’d his way to Chicago, where he became the grumpy don’t care bear we all know and love. I think that entire experience might be what made Cutler such a grump. But it was more than Cutler. McDaniels drove off or jettisoned plenty of other players (such as Brandon Marshall) so he could bring in his Patriots buddies in and be a little dictator in training. After a hot start, the Broncos imploded. He used a first-round pick on Tim Tebow. He didn’t even make it to the end of his second season, getting fired in early December.
He joined the Rams for a season under the coach who kicked his ass in 2007: Steve Spagnulo. Spags was fired at season’s end. The little weasel went crawling back to New England and rode Tom Brady to more success. Enough success and time managed to rehabilitate his image because NFL executives have pea brains who watched Belichick disciple after Belichick disciple fail in pretty much the exact same fashion as McD did. Eventually, he got his undeserved second chance. Jim Irsay offered him the Colts job. Then at the last second, McDaniels pulls out and runs back to the safety of Billy. I thought that was it. After the Denver failure and publicly skipping town on Indy, that was it for his reputation. His own agent quit on him after that. He sniffed around for another HC gig in the following years, but nobody bit. Even Joe Judge got hired before McDaniels did. His only chance now was to just wait out Belichick and take over when Billy decided it was time.
Fucking Mark Davis, man. I have no idea what that bowl-cut dope was doing in the back of Hooters that morning but whatever it was, he needs to quit it cold turkey because it made him think Hiring Josh McDaniels was a good decision. I don’t know a single person who liked it from the start. He pretty much immediately alienated more dudes and brought in former Patriots. Poor Derek Carr, man. A beloved icon in the fanbase and an alright QB and McDaniels just straight-up broke the man. McDaniels’ first season in Las Vegas had many incredible moments. There was the time the Raiders lost to the Baker Mayfield Rams, 2 days after Baker Mayfield became a Ram. There was the loss to the Cardinals in week 2 where the defense choked and Kyler Murray scrambled around for 10 minutes. There was the ugly Patriots game where the Raiders won pretty much entirely because Jacoby Meyers had the worst brain fart of the year and lateralled it to Chandler Jones. But who can forget the pièce de résistance, losing to Jeff Fucking Saturday, a TV analyst, in his coaching debut with the Colts. I have to imagine Irsay busted out the best drugs he had after that game.
One year later, Carr is in New Orleans, and Patriots boy Jimmy G is getting hurt in Vegas for his old boss. The Raiders would lose to Tyson Bagent, an undrafted rookie, who played QB for the Bears, one of the worst teams in the NFL. A week later, the Raiders would squander a chance against the Lions and Marky Mark finally woke up from his hooters coma and made a good decision. The story that supposedly happened before his firing and the hiring of Antonio Pierce is funnier than any comic I could have made, and I suggest you read it. Fuck you, McDaniels, you giant baby.
So what now? McDaniels has pretty much only ever achieved anything on the back of the greatest player of all time. His greatest achievement without Brady was getting Mac Jones to the wildcard round so they could be nuked by the Buffalo Bills. Can he run back to Bill now? For the first time in 2 decades the Patriots are a pile of pure shit with one of the worst offenses in the league. The coaching staff there is under a lot of pressure and who knows, maybe Bill O’Brien gets canned and Billy goes back to using his little stooge for one last ride. But as things look now, McDaniels will be no heir apparent. Who would want this bum? Who could possibly tolerate this bum?
Well, the XFL and USFL are merging. Might be some opportunity there. That league probably uses concession stands he can work at.
What pisses me off the most about the Josh McDaniels hiring is that he didn’t need to be hired in the first place. Look at some other horrible head coaches: Jeff Saturday’s hire was dumb, but he was just a stopgap after Reich’s time ran out; Urban Meyer was horrible, but Doug Marrone wasn’t lasting any longer in Jacksonville. However, with the Raiders, there was no reason to cut ties with Rich Bisaccia. He had just taken them to the playoffs after the Gruden scandal, and the players clearly enjoyed playing for him. Now he’s a ST coordinator in Green Bay. I hope he gets another shot at HC, but if I’m being honest, he never should’ve been looking for a second chance in the first place.
The Raiders are known for this. Their original trading of Gruden for example. I thought even their dismissal of Jack Del Rio was a bit premature. Regardless, Davis has been a clueless owner.
Yeah, Davis is making decisions like his dad was making at the end of his life. He doesn’t have one ounce of his dad’s football acumen, from when he was in his prime.
That’s why I always say “Great Coordinators don’t make Good Head Coac-.” (gets sucker punched by the ghost of Buddy Ryan)
There’s almost zero doubt that McDaniels will probably get hired back onto New England’s staff at some point, probably as a QB coach with heavy playcalling duties assuming BoB doesn’t stick around. The only difference here is that he won’t have Tom Brady there to boost his resume and somehow make league execs forget about his multiple failed stints as a Head Coach.
That said, I think what ultimately landed him the job in Vegas is the fact that New England’s offense actually looked competent with him running things in their first year of Mac Ball. Sure, that likely had more to do with the weak schedule and New England having a significantly better rushing attack and OL back then, but still, he led a decent offense with a guy that was considerably worse than Tom Brady for once, so they thought that maybe something had changed. Obviously nothing did.
Just another case of a Bill disciple trying to recreate the Patriot Way without the single-most important piece that made the whole thing click. #12 is not walking through them doors, man.
Trying to transport Belichick’s Patriots culture by hiring one of Belichick’s disciples really has led to some spectacular and franchise-damaging coaching flameouts. I’m sure it’s a real hoot if you aren’t a fan of the teams duped into believing they could buy their own copy of the Patriot Way for the low low price of giving too much control to a coach who has yet to earn it.
Man, what a bad look for Josh “Don’t ever talk to me or my Patriots ever again” McDaniels. Something’s goofed up with his head if he’s still got the need to play white knight against perceived slights against the Patriots while coaching another team.
“I have no idea what that bowl-cut dope was doing in the back of Hooters that morning…”
Nah, Mark Davis is famously a PF Chang’s guy
> There was the ugly Patriots game where the Raiders won pretty much entirely because Jakobi Meyers had the worst brain fart of the year and lateraled it to Chandler Jones.
My favorite part is how the Raiders turned around and acquired former Patriot Jakobi Meyers after that game.
Gotta love those mouse hover remarks lol